Aero-News: Quote of the Day

ANN's Quote of the Day usually derives from current news, though we reserve the right to pick quotes out of history that have a bearing on the day's events and issues.

Sometimes, you'll find them timely and in keeping with the content of the day's news... and sometimes, they'll just be thought-provoking.

Reader suggestions and comments are welcome... and if particularly intriguing, timely, or poignant, may themselves become future Quotes of the Day.

Let us hear from you, folks!

Aero-News Quote of the Day

"It tells me how widespread and deeply ingrained this sense was that foam can't hurt an orbiter. The fact that this piece of foam . . . is much, much larger than NASA's previous experience is, of course, important, because it gets into the question of why didn't that alarm the engineers in the program? That's kind of basic to our investigation."

Source: Adm. Harold Gehman (USN, ret.), chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, in his final formal briefing Friday before the board submits its report on the shuttle disaster. The fact that shuttle engineers considered a chunk of foam that hit Columbia's left wing shortly after launch on January 16th "in the family" of other debris hits and not even a remote threat to Columbia indicates NASA needs to change its entire decision-making process, Gehman said.

FMI: www.caib.us